Vocabulary Lessons: Amulet
by Miss Anonymous csi
Summary: Part of the “Vocabulary Lessons” series. Nick solves a murder case with the help of an Amulet. Stand alone piece. Complete.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own CSI in any way, shape, or form. All rights go to CBS, unfortunately. I have tried to at least buy out Nick Stokes, but they say ten dollars just doesn't cut it. 

**Summary:** Part of the "Vocabulary Lessons" series. Nick solves a murder case with the help of an Amulet. 

**Author's Note:** This is the second story in the "Vocabulary Lessons" series. It is a series of drabbles that focus on Nick, but other characters feature as well.

* * *

**Vocabulary Lessons: Amulet**

_amulet (AM yew let) – a charm or ornament worn to protect against evil_

"Brass!" Nick called out as he jogged down the hall toward the homicide detective. "Where'd you pick her up?" 

"Border patrol spotted her as she was trying to head into Arizona," Brass said. He glanced in the interrogation window where a ragged blond woman sat. He smiled slightly. "You got lucky, Nick; she nearly got away." 

"Yeah, sure sounds like it," he agreed. He also looked through the window at the girl. He frowned. "You sure that's her? She doesn't seem too…" 

"Threatening?" Brass offered. "That's her alright. Charity Locke, twenty-nine, current residence: her car." 

Nick raised his eyebrows at that. 

"Everything she owned was thrown in there," he explained. "It was obvious that she wasn't planning on coming back from wherever she was going." 

"Well, that explains the lack of stuff at her apartment," he muttered. 

"Yeah, and get this, in the backseat of her car, patrol found a shrine-type collection of items—all belonging to or pertaining to your vic." 

"Creepy," said Nick. 

"Ready to go in?" he asked. 

"Sure, let's go." 

The two men entered the interrogation room and the blond woman looked up with watery blue eyes. She frowned at them and sniffed. Brass and Nick exchanged a look as they settled themselves in the chairs across from her. 

"Charity Locke, I'm Detective Jim Brass and this is CSI Nick Stokes. You're here so we can ask you a few questions. You are aware that you can ask for a lawyer at any time, correct?" Brass began with the usual formalities. 

"I dunn need uh lawyuh; I ain't dunn nothin' wrong," the blonde mumbled. 

"Of course you haven't," Jim said, his voice dripping with disbelief. 

Nick watched as the girl shifted in her seat and played with a chain around her neck. He stared at the slightly rusted chain that was leaving a green mark around the woman's neck that she did not seem to even notice. He sat up straighter, hoping to see what was at the end of the chain, but with Charity sitting slouched in her chair and the chain being at just the right length, he could not see where it ended. 

"Wha'chyu starin' at?" 

Nick's eyes shot up to her face. "Huh?" 

"I sayd, wha'chyu starin' at?" she repeated, sounding slightly annoyed. 

"Oh," he said, slightly surprised, "I was just admiring your necklace." 

"Nah' uh necklace," she growled, "is an amulet. It's ter pertect me from duh evil, y'see?" 

She pulled the necklace off and set it down on the table showing off the silver-painted star that had a purple jewel in the middle. As Nick leaned more forward to get a better look, he saw that the jewel was made out of plastic. He grasped the pendent in his hand as though to get a better look and said, "Yeah, I see. An amulet, you say? That's an interesting choice of words to describe this necklace seeing how our victim's name is Amulet Strange." He glanced up at her just in time to see her flinch at the name before flipping the pendent over in his hand. "And would you look at that," he continued, "her name is engraved on that back. This is not yours." 

"Is too mine!" she snapped, trying to snatch the necklace from Nick, but he held onto it. 

"Then why does it have somebody else's name on it?" he demanded. 

"I-I-I bough' it fer her!" Charity claimed. "B-but she dunn wannit, so I kep'tit." 

"Really?" said Nick. "She didn't want it?" 

"No," she mumbled. 

"Okay," he conceded. He pulled out the case folder and threw down a photo that he had collected from her apartment. "Then why is she wearing it in this photo?" He threw down another picture. "And this one?" And another picture. "And this one?" 

He watched her reaction as he threw down each picture; she seemed to grow sadder with each picture as if they were a memory she had forgotten, and he saw that was probably true considering that she was in every picture with the victim. He got to the last photo that had the necklace in it; it was the only photo that did not have Charity Locke in it. As he threw it down, he saw her facial expression change from sad to utter anger. 

The picture was of his redheaded victim, Amulet Strange, hanging all over a man they had already questioned, Paul Moyer. They were both grinning broadly in the picture, and as he looked at the picture, he thought back to how distraught Paul had been at the news that Amulet was dead. He looked up at Charity and saw fiery anger shining in her eyes. 

"Is that why you killed her?" Nick asked. "Did you want Paul Moyer to yourself?" 

"I dinn kill Amulet!" she shrieked. "I love her! I woon hurt her!" 

"Is that why you chose a bullet through the brain? So she wouldn't feel the pain?" Nick said, quietly. 

Charity did not answer. 

"So if you didn't kill her over Paul Moyer, why did you kill her?" he continued. 

"I dinn kill her!" she shrieked, again. "Paul is uh bastard! He feeld her head wif lies!" 

"She wanted out," Nick countered. "She wanted out of the drugs, prostitution, and cult—" 

"No! He mayd her ge'out. She dinn have uh choice!" 

"She did have a choice," he said, "and she made it, so you killed her." 

"No…" Charity murmured, as she shook her head. 

"You went over to her house with the proposition that the two of you leave your homes, leave the state, and leave Paul—" 

"No…" 

"—but she said no. She told you herself that she was done with your lifestyle, and that made you angry—" 

"No…" 

"—you didn't bring the gun to kill Amulet. You brought the gun to protect yourself from who you thought was the real evil: Paul, but he was actually the good guy—" 

"No…" 

"—she told you that Paul was helping her leave your life and start a new one. She told you that she didn't want anything more to do with the drugs or anything that came with it. You killed her, because she told you that she didn't want anything to do with you—" 

"SHE WAS A GODDAMN BITCH!" 

Nick and Brass both started at the sudden outburst. They exchanged a subtle triumphant glance before turning back toward Charity whose tirade had just begun. 

"I was willin' tuh give her my love, my pertection—and she turn me down! She sayd she was gonna only keep one theeng and that was _this!_" She held up the necklace. "She was gonna keep somethin' I gave her and yet she turned me down! I told her she couldn' keep somehin' I gave her if she wouldn' have me, but she wouldn' give it back. She jus' wouldn'!" 

"So you took it back by force," Nick said in a low voice, "by taking her life." 

"She had already taken mine," Charity murmured, tears now streaming down her cheeks, "by taking my heart—it seemed only fair." 

"Fair," Nick repeated, as the officer came over to arrest her for the confession. "You were right about one thing," he said, suddenly, catching her attention. "She did need protection… from you." 


End file.
